Tides

The Bay of Fundy at high tide

The same location at low tide

Folklore in the Mi'kmaqFirst Nation claims that the tides in the
Bay of Fundy are caused by a giant whale splashing in the water. Oceanographers
attribute it to tidal resonance resulting from a
coincidence of timing: the time it takes a large wave to go from
the mouth of the bay to the inner shore and back is practically the
same as the time from one high tide to the next. During the 12.4
hour tidal period, 115 billion tonnes of water flow in and out of the
bay.[5]

The quest for world tidal dominance has led to a rivalry between
the Minas Basin in
the Bay of Fundy and the Leaf Basin in Ungava Bay, over which body of water lays
claim to the highest tides in the world, with supporters in each
region claiming the record.

The Canadian Hydrographic
Service finally declared it a statistical tie, with
measurements of a 16.8 metre (55.1 feet) tidal range in Leaf Basin
for Ungava Bay and 17 meters (55.8 feet) at Burntcoat Head for the Bay
of Fundy.[6] The
highest water level ever recorded in the Bay of Fundy system
occurred at the head of the Minas Basin on the night of October
4–5, 1869 during a tropical cyclone named the “Saxby Gale”.
The water level of 21.6 metres (70.9 feet) resulted from the
combination of high winds, abnormally low atmospheric pressure, and a spring
tide.

Leaf Basin has only been measured in recent years, whereas the
Fundy system has been measured for many decades. Tidal experts note
that Leaf Basin is consistently higher on average tides
than Minas Basin; however, the highest recorded tidal ranges ever
measured are at Burntcoat Head and result from spring
tides measured at the peak of the tidal cycle every 18 years.

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Tidal electrical power
generation

Several proposals to build tidal harnesses for electrical power generation have
been put forward in recent decades. Such proposals have mainly
involved building barrages which
effectively dam off a smaller arm of the bay and extract power from
water flowing through them.

One such facility, (the only one of its kind currently
operating) the Annapolis Royal
Generating Station consists of a dam and 18-MW power house on
the Annapolis
River at Annapolis Royal, but
larger proposals have been held back by a number of factors,
including environmental concerns. The Annapolis Royal Generating
Station has been studied for its various effects, including an
accelerated shoreline erosion problem on the historic waterfront of
the town of Annapolis Royal, as well as increased siltation and
heavy metal and pesticide contamination upstream due to lack of
regular river/tidal flushing. There have also been instances where
large marine mammals such as whales have become trapped in the head pond
after transiting the sluice gates during slack tide.

Damming a large arm of the Bay of Fundy would have significant
effects, as yet inadequately understood, both within the dammed bay
itself and in the surrounding regions. Intertidal habitats would be
drastically affected and a facility would bring the bay closer to
resonance, increasing tidal range over a very large area. One
effect could be an increase in tidal range of 0.2 m (from
approximately 1 m) for certain coastal sites in Maine, possibly leading to flooding.

There have been proposals in recent years for installing Aquanators, the underwater
equivalent to wind
turbines, which would not require any damming or blockading of
parts of the bay but would instead generate electricity solely by
being placed in areas of high water flow, such as at choke points
or merely along the floor of any part of the bay which sees
significant water movement.

The bay's extreme tidal range causes several interesting
phenomena in the various rivers which empty into it.

The Saint John River sees its flow reversed at high tide,
causing a series of rapids at the famous Reversing Falls where the river empties
into the bay, in a gorge in the middle of the city of Saint John.

Rivers in the upper Bay of Fundy have a smaller flow-rate than
the Saint John, and a shallower slope. As a result, extensive mud
flats are deposited throughout the tidal range of the rivers.

Another phenomenon which occurs in these rivers of the upper bay
is a "tidal bore",
whereby the river flow is completely reversed by the rising tide.
One of the better examples of a tidal bore can be seen on the
Shubenacadie River near the town of Truro and the village of Maitland,
where local ecotourism
operators offer the chance to experience rafting the bore upriver.
Another good example of a tidal bore may be viewed on the Salmon
River in the town of Truro. The once-famous tidal bores
on the Petitcodiac and Avon rivers have been severely disrupted as
a result of causeway
construction in the 1960s-1970s which have caused excessive
siltation.

Communities

The largest population centre on the bay is the New Brunswick
city of Saint John.

Though up-river on the Petitcodiac, the city of Moncton is also frequently
associated with the Bay of Fundy.

A result of shipping traffic has been the potential for
increased collisions between ships and the North Atlantic Right
Whale. In 2003, the Canadian Coast Guard adjusted
shipping lanes crossing prime whale feeding areas at the entrance
to the Bay of Fundy to lessen the risk of collision.

The bay is also traversed by several passenger and automobile ferry services:

The Bay of Fundy's ports and basins have a long shipping and
shipbuilding history. Among other accomplishments, Fundy ports
produced the fastest ship in the world, the ship Marco
Polo; the largest wooden ship ever built in Canada, the
ship William D. Lawrence;
and the first female sea captain in the western world, Molly Kool of Alma, New
Brunswick.

Get in

Driving will present the best opportunity to visit widely spaced
attractions. A ride on the Trans-Canadian Highway through New
Brunswick is not to be missed. You'll be happy to have seen
attractions like the World's Largest Axe, the World's Longest
Covered Bridge, and sunrise is gorgeous over the St. John river
valley. Don't miss Magnetic Hill!

Hopewell Rocks, (Route 114 to Hopewell Cape, 47km southeast
of Moncton, look for park signs), ☎+1-877-734-3429 (questions@thehopewellrocks.ca,
fax: +1-506-734-3357), [1]. 8am-8pm (Jun 22–Aug 16); 8am–6pm (Aug 17–Sep 2);
9am–5pm (Sep 2–Jun 21). This
provincial park at Hopewell Cape is most likely what you are here
for. The tide swings 14m (47') here, twice every 25 hours, and the
park gives you the facilities and trails to explore it. For three
hours before and after low tide, you can walk on the bay floor and
look up at unique "flower pot" sandstone towers topped by trees. Be
sure to check the low tide times
[2][3],
and aim to arrive one to three hours before the lowest tide. It is
well worth planning your whole vacation to Eastern Canada around
this time. Seeing the Hopewell Rocks at low tide is a deeply moving
experience; it looks like something out of a Hollywood disaster
movie. The ocean is literally not there. It looks like the
apocalypse. Walking on the ocean floor is a unique, once in a
lifetime experience, and it is not to be missed.$8/adult, discounts for children, students,
seniors. (45.846948,-64.576263)edit

From LoveToKnow 1911

BAY OF FUNDY, an inlet of the North Atlantic, separating New Brunswick from Nova Scotia. It is 145
m. long and 48 m. wide at the mouth, but gradually narrows towards
the head, where it divides into Chignecto Bay to the north, which
subdivides into Shepody Bay and Cumberland Basin (the French Beaubassin),
and Minas Channel, leading into
Minas Basin, to the east and south. Off its western shore opens
Passamaquoddy Bay, a magnificent sheet of deep water with good anchorage,
receiving the waters of the St Croix river and forming part of the
boundary between New Brunswick and the state of Maine. The Bay of Fundy is remarkable for the
great rise and fall of the tide,
which at the head of the bay has been known to reach 62 ft. In
Passamaquoddy Bay the rise and fall is about 25 ft., which
gradually increases toward the narrow upper reaches. At spring
tides the water in the Bay of Fundy is 19 ft. higher than it is in
Bay Verte, in Northumberland Strait, only 15 m.
distant. Though the bay is deep, navigation is rendered dangerous
by the violence and rapidity of the tide, and in summer by frequent
fogs. At low tide, at such points as Moncton or Amherst, only an expanse of red mud can
be seen, and the tide rushes in a bore or crest from 3 to 6 ft. in height. Large areas of
fertile marshes are situated at the head of the bay, and the
remains of a submerged forest show that the land has subsided in
the latest geological period at least 40 ft. The bay receives the
waters of the St Croix and St John
rivers, and has numerous harbours, of which the chief are St
Andrews (on Passamaquoddy Bay) and St John in New Brunswick, and
Digby and Annapolis (on
an inlet known as Annapolis Basin) in Nova Scotia. It was first explored by the Sieur de
Monts (d. c. 1628) in 1604 and named by him La Baye
Frangaise.

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